


Glitching

by orphan_account



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Kirito wanted to stay with Eugeo and unconsciously resisted being logged out, My guess of how Kirito was logged out, which cause a lotta ouch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 17:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18628096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: How Kirito was logged out after his three day dive.





	Glitching

**Author's Note:**

> I took a lot of liberties with this. I can’t remember whether dreams were a thing in the Underworld, but for the sake of the story I’m saying there are. And I’m pretty sure canon implied that Kirito lost Alice and immediately got logged out, so I guess this is technically an AU...? Also, parents were never mentioned so I made it a thing.

Alice had been taken two days ago.

And Eugeo was beginning to get worried about Kirito.

He was first suspicious after the chief had scolded them for their actions. Instead of his best friend’s usual fire, he had been unusually quiet. Contrite. Mr. Zuberg didn’t notice like Eugeo did.

At first, Eugeo was too caught up in his own grief to do anything, why should’ve he? His friend would be fine, he would always be.

...right?

Eugeo fully began to worry three days after Alice was taken. Kirito, again, was being uncharacteristically quiet on their way to the Gigas Cedar; which made Eugeo worry more than he’d like to admit. The only other time Kirito had ever been like this was when his adoptive parents died of the Disease. Eugeo did not want another repeat of that.

“Are you okay, Kirito?” Eugeo quietly asked. This made Kirito stop with a jolt; like someone had just told him that honey buns weren’t yummy.

Kirito’s eyes widened as he looked towards Eugeo before he smiled. “Yes.” 

Eugeo frowned, unsatisfied, before Kirito launched into his normal early day chatter, and then it was Eugeo’s turn to pause. 

What had just happened?

He stared at his slim and energetic friend before shaking his head and running to catch up.

He must’ve been imagining things.

___________________________________

Kirito was most definitely not okay.

He had been brooding over all the things he could’ve done to save Alice when the soft voice of his best friend broke him out of his thoughts.

“Are you okay, Kirito?”

The person in question flinched, staring up at Eugeo. His shining green eyes were full of concern and Kirito cursed in his head. Eugeo didn’t need to be bothered with his silly faults.

So instead, he answered with a simple “Yes.” and started chattering about anything positive that came to mind as he usually would, continuing their trek to the Gigas cedar. 

Kirito was relieved when Eugeo let it drop.

___________________________________

Pain.

That was all that Kirito registered the first time it had happened.

He had been unable to sleep for the sixth night in a row and went to the woods to clear his head. Contrary to many of the villagers’ beliefs, Kirito was actually very smart. He knew that it was unlikely that Alice would survive, and much less so that they would ever see each other again.

And it hurt.

It _hurt_ to know that one of his _best friends_ was gone, possibly dead, and he hadn’t been able to do a thing!

Briefly, an image of someone with short blue-black hair appeared in his mind and he was hit with a fresh wave of grief.

He collapsed on the floor next to a tree and started crying. Hard.

Crying for Alice, and that kind girl with the spear he couldn’t remember, and just, just—

His thoughts had been broken off by the pain.

One moment all his pain had been fully mental and the next it was as if all that had been transferred to his body, as if _something_ was trying to rip him away, to bring him somewhere else.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute or so, the pain stopped and Kirito was left sobbing in mental and physical pain until he fell into a dreamless sleep.

___________________________________

The next day Kirito tried his hardest to stay awake.

His late night... glitching? had dropped him into a pitiful sleep for roughly two hours before he had to go back to the church.

And somehow, those two hours had made him more tired than five days of no sleep. It was a battle to keep Eugeo oblivious.

Right after his turn, Eugeo handed over the axe and left to go to the bathroom. He had just went out of ear shot when the glitching happened again.

Lights and bursts of places and people he didn’t know ran through his mind, before disappearing just as fast. Kirito bit down on his obviously glitching hand in an effort to keep quiet. It _hurt_. Even worse than last night!

After the glitching stopped— _it had taken longer, Kirito noticed_ —he collapsed on the Gigas’s roots in pain and exhaustion.

He let out a soft groan of pain before slipping into unconsciousness again.

___________________________________

Eugeo frowned when he came back to silence. 

“Kirito?” 

No answer.

He started running, wondering if something had happened, before pausing as he saw his slumbering friend.

Eugeo smiled softly.

He ended up finishing that days quota by himself.

___________________________________

Kirito woke up with the sun on his eyes. He blinked, quickly covering them, before looking around.

_What had happened?_

A knock at his door made Kirito fall out of bed with the grace of a donkey on stilts.

Selka peeked in.

“You’re awake!” She proclaimed with a smile on her face. “Great! It’s time for prayers soon, don’t be late!” And she shut the door, leaving a tangled Kirito to get ready.

___________________________________

The third time it happened was undoubtedly the most painful.

Kirito had just been doing his final strike with the axe when it happened; his body fluctuated between being physical and being... not as memories flowed through his mind like water, the ones of Rulid disappearing like fresh food on a hot day, and his old ones popping up like weeds in a garden. He screamed, tucking into himself, while the foreign emotions, feelings, and memories hit him worse than the Integrity Knight’s strike.

He briefly heard a concerned and scared shout that sounded so _familiar_ and so _warm_ and _he wanted to go to that voice_ —

Kirigaya Kazuto woke up crying, a distant feeling of pain and sorrow disappearing as tears rolled down his face.

___________________________________

To say Eugeo panicked when he heard the screams would be an understatement. He was fully and utterly _freaked_ , to say the least.

He has been hanging about idly, playing with a flower and missing Alice when he heard Kirito’s cries.

The flax-haired boy leapt to his feet and sprinted, as fast as he could, towards his black-haired best friend.

“KIRITO!!!” He yelled.

Kirito had collapsed into himself, clutching his head and tucking his knees to his chest. Eugeo tried to put his hand on his shoulder, but it passed through, as if he weren’t even there.

Eugeo’s eyes widened and he paled. Memories of Kirito’s parents’ deaths flashed through his mind like a thunderbolt. The same thing had happened to them.

He could only stand there speechless, his hands hovering over a rapidly fading form, as his best friend disappeared from his life again.

When the villagers sent out a search party that night, they found Eugeo, all alone, holding Kirito’s sash.

**Author's Note:**

> If this is something like what had happened, Administrator’s memory deletion of Kirito might have been a good thing for Eugeo. I’m my universe, he did have to suffer over Kirito’s ‘death’ for two months before that happened though.
> 
> This may become a series with Kirito remembering his parents from the Underworld in rl. But I’m also lazy so maybe not?
> 
> Thank you for reading this, even though it was most definitely painful to do so. :)


End file.
